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Emilee Bradley
Winner of the GJSO’s 2007 Young Artist Competition, nineteen-yearold
pianist Emilee Bradley, a native of Utah,has studied piano since the age
of five. She has had a deep passion for classical music and the piano
her entire life and has always enjoyed performing and competing.
Ms. Bradley has studied with several music
teachers during her life, but by the time she was fourteen she began study
with Betty Beecher of Utah State University. Their time together focused
on building a bigger repertoire, preparing for competitions, auditions,
and developing stronger performance skills. Now a scholarship student
at Utah State University, where she studies under the guidance of Gary
Amano, Ms. Bradley is working towards an undergraduate degree in piano
performance. She has the opportunity of working as a private and classroom
instructor in the music department and Youth Conservatory at USU, teaching
as many as twenty private lessons a week and being an assistant teacher
for undergraduate college courses such as Aural Skills and Keyboard Harmony.
As an active performer, Ms. Bradley has
received top awards at various competitions, including USU’s Piano
Festival, Utah State Fair, and Utah Symphony Youth Guild. She was a guest
soloist with the Cache Chamber Orchestra in 2005 and with the Utah State
University Orchestra under Maestro Sergio Bernal during her freshman year
at USU. She performed at master classes at the Wassermann Festival, working
with artists such as Roberto Plano. Other notable performances have included
participation in the Mu Phi Epsilon Winners’ Recital at Temple Square,
her annual appearance at the Cool Classics concert series, and on the
Norwegian Star while cruising to the Fanning Islands. She was recently
featured in the magazine Boston Piano as one of the students to represent
the USU Piano Department.
Aside from her life as a musician, Ms. Bradley
enjoys the outdoors, running, and spending time with family and friends.
She also has an interest in culinary arts and designs and decorates wedding
cakes.
CLAUDE DEBUSSY
b St Germain-en-Laye, August 22, 1862
d Paris, March 25, 1918
Tonight’s all-French program feature
the best-known of the musical impressionists, and perhaps the father of
all modern French composers, Camille Saint-Saëns.
Although Claude Debussy didn’t like
being referred to as an impressionist, he is certainly known for beginning
this rebellious musical style, and for his influence of many other composers
who followed. He was born in a small town near Paris, and remained there
until he was 22. His teachers regarded him as an unorthodox rebel because
he failed to resolve chord progressions in the normal manner, In 1884,
Debussy won the Prix de Rome, the highest award for composers in France,
and compositional award that eluded his compatriot, Ravel.
Debussy’s musical style was influenced
by many things. He was both repelled and attracted by the music dramas
of Richard Wagner, which were very popular in the late 1880s. He was enamored
by the effects of light created by impressionist painters as well as the
fleeting mood and misty atmosphere of the symbolist poets. In fact, the
music of Debussy’s Faun is a very free illustration of the poem
The Afternoon of a Faun by his close friend Stéphen Malarmé.
This poem evokes the dreams and erotic fantasies of a pagan forest creature
who is half-man and half-goat. The intoxicated faun tries to recall whether
he actually carried off two beautiful nymphs or only dreamed of doing
so. Exhausted by the effort, he falls back to sleep in the warm sunshine.
The misty, dream-like atmosphere of the poem lends itself well in Debussy’s
instrumental timbre as he employs glissandos on the harp, muted strings
and horn, and this vague, unresolved harmony. The low range of the now-famous
flute solo emphasizes the sensuous nature of the poem. Composed between
1892 and 1894, Debussy’s Faun was premiered by the Société
Nationale de Musique (a society founded by Saint-Saëns) under the
direction of Gustave Doret.
CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS
b Paris, October 9, 1835
d Algiers, December 16, 1921
Countryman Romain Rolland wrote of Camille
Saint-Saëns:
Saint-Saëns possessed, indeed,
some of the best qualities of a French artist, and among them the most
important quality of all — perfect cleanliness of conception.
Compared with the restless and troubled art today, his music strikes
us by its calm, its tranquil harmonies, its velvety modulation, its
crystal clearness, its smooth and flowing style, and an elegance that
cannot be put into words…his compositions are like fragments of
another world.
Saint-Saëns was a remarkable prodigy.
With perfect pitch, he played the piano and composed from the age of three,
performed Mozart and Beethoven concertos at 10, and enrolled in the Paris
Conservatory at age 12. He succeeded remarkably as soloist, conductor,
composer and teacher for nearly eight decades. He knew Berlioz and Liszt,
experienced the music of Debussy and Stravinsky, and when he died, Aaron
Copland was 21.
Although he formed the Société
Nationale de Musique in 1871, which gave first performance of works by
every significant French composer from Frank to Ravel, his musical taste
remained conservative in the bygone age.
The last of his five piano concertos, this
F major concerto is known as the Egyptian because Saint-Saëns composed
the piece in Luxor while on one of his frequent winter vacations to Egypt.
Composed in 1896, it is the most pictorial of his concertos. The orchestration
and form provide clarity, and the piano writing allows for great color.
The opening movement begins warmly, and alternates between two principal
themes. The second movement is lush and exotic, based on a Nubian love
song that Saint-Saëns heard boatmen sing as he sailed on the Nile.
Especially in the Finale, the virtuosic display is very demanding which
brings the piece to a triumphant finish.
MAURICE RAVEL
b Ciboure, Basses-Pyrenees, March 7, 1875
d Paris, December 28, 1937
Ravel moved to Paris from the Basque region
as a child, and entered the Paris Conservatory at age 14, where he studied
piano with Beriot and composition with Fauré. Within two years
he won first prize in piano, but his progressive musical vocabulary kept
him from winning the Prix de Rome in composition.
This evening, the customary second suite
from this ballet is being performed. It begins with perhaps the most gorgeous
sunrise in all the musical repertory. The score bears the following indications:
The murmur of rivulets of dew trickling
from the rocks. Bird songs are heard. Daphnis and Chloé mime
the adventure of Pan and the Syrinx. Chloé impersonates the young
nymph, wandering in the meadow. Daphnis appears in the role of Pan and
declares his love. The nymph repulses him. The gods grow more insistent.
She disappears among the reeds. In despair, he plucks some stalks, fashions
them into a flute and plays a melancholy tune. Chloé returns
and her dance follows the accents of the flute. The dance grows more
and more animated and, in a mad whirl, Chloé falls into Daphnis’
arms. On two sheep before the altar of the nymphs he swears his fidelity.
A group of young girls…and men invade the stage. Daphnis and Chloé
embrace tenderly. Joyous tumult.
Ravel’s orchestra is as large as
the Stravinsky ballets of the same period. In addition to the standard
orchestra, there are infrequently heard instruments, including the alto
flute, piccolo clarinet, contrabassoon, and a very large percussion section.
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his
all-French program stars 2007 Young Artist Competition winnder Emilee
Bradley in a compelling performance of Saint Saëns Piano Concerto
No. 5. Ravel's glittering orchestration brings the concert to a tumultuous
conclusion with Daphnis et Chloé. Ravel was a master of orchestration
who knew how to make an orchestra sparkle. 
